How have sentences for seditious conspiracy compared to other January 6 convictions?
Executive summary
Seditious-conspiracy convictions from the Jan. 6 prosecutions produced some of the longest sentences imposed before the 2025 mass commutations: Stewart Rhodes received 18 years and Kelly Meggs 12 years, while several other Oath Keepers and Proud Boys received between probation and roughly 4½ years; the statutory maximum for seditious conspiracy is 20 years [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting shows a wide range of outcomes—from probation to nearly two decades—before many of those longer terms were commuted or pardoned in January 2025 [5] [4] [6].
1. Seditious conspiracy produced the heaviest penalties among Jan. 6 cases
Federal prosecutors pursued seditious conspiracy—an uncommon, Civil War–era statute with a 20‑year maximum—against leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, and the biggest pre‑2025 punishments in the Jan. 6 universe came from those convictions: Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years, Kelly Meggs to 12 years, and the government at times sought even longer combined terms for some defendants [1] [2] [7] [8].
2. But sentences varied a lot across defendants and trials
Even within seditious‑conspiracy cases, sentences ranged widely: four Oath Keepers convicted in a second trial received prison terms of roughly 3 to 4½ years—far below what prosecutors requested—while other defendants pleaded guilty and received probation or lighter outcomes, such as Joshua James receiving three years of probation after a guilty plea [2] [9] [3].
3. How those punishments compared to the broader Jan. 6 caseload
Across the larger set of Jan. 6 convictions, most defendants were charged with trespass, obstruction, assault, or related offenses rather than seditious conspiracy. Those convictions typically carried shorter sentences; reporting and DOJ public counts emphasized hundreds of convictions for a wide range of crimes, many resulting in shorter terms than the multi‑year seditious‑conspiracy penalties [10] [5].
4. Sentencing factors and legal framing mattered—and were contested
Judges and prosecutors treated seditious conspiracy as especially serious because it alleged a coordinated effort to stop the transfer of power; DOJ sought terrorism enhancements in some cases and argued for substantial terms based on pre‑planning and use of force, while defense teams pushed back about fairness, jury perspective and legal thresholds [1] [11] [8]. A federal appeals court later restricted the use of a particular sentencing enhancement in the broader Jan. 6 prosecution context [5].
5. Historical context: seditious conspiracy outside Jan. 6
Seditious conspiracy is rare but has produced much longer penalties in other eras: for example, Oscar López Rivera served decades for seditious conspiracy in a Puerto Rican independence campaign before his sentence was commuted—showing the statute’s potential to produce very long punishments in other circumstances [12] [13].
6. Post‑sentencing political actions changed the landscape
While seditious‑conspiracy convictions initially stood out for length, the political actions of January 20, 2025 altered real-world outcomes: reporting indicates that President Trump pardoned or commuted many Jan. 6–related sentences, including commutations or pardons affecting both Proud Boys and Oath Keepers defendants who had received some of the longest pre‑2025 terms [5] [4] [6]. Available sources do not provide detailed records here for every individual defendant beyond the named examples cited [5] [4] [6].
7. Two competing narratives in the coverage
Prosecutors and many news organizations presented seditious‑conspiracy convictions as necessary to hold leaders accountable for a coordinated attack on democracy and to set sentencing benchmarks [11] [10]. By contrast, defense lawyers and some commentators argued that the charge is rare, legally difficult to prove, and that sentences should reflect individual conduct rather than political beliefs—arguments reflected in the range of punishments and some acquittals on sedition counts [2] [3].
8. Limits of current reporting and what we don’t know
Available sources document headline sentences, the statutory maximum, and the January 2025 pardons/commutations for many high‑profile defendants, but they do not enumerate every sentence for every Jan. 6 defendant or provide a complete dataset comparing median or average terms across offense types; therefore a comprehensive statistical comparison of seditious‑conspiracy sentences versus all other Jan. 6 convictions is not found in current reporting [5] [10] [2].
Conclusion: Before the 2025 clemency actions, seditious‑conspiracy cases produced the steepest punishments in the Jan. 6 prosecutions—up to 18 years in practice and 20 years by statute—yet outcomes varied considerably by case, plea, and trial, and many of those long sentences were later commuted or pardoned, complicating any simple comparison between seditious‑conspiracy penalties and the broader universe of Jan. 6 convictions [1] [2] [5] [6].